Isle of Wight Festival

Summer season kicks off around June in the UK with a bunch of music festivals rolling out across the country. After failing miserably in our attempts to buy ticket to the big one - Glastonbury - we were offered a couple of tickets to go to the Isle of Wight music festival. The Isle of Wight is an island off the south coast of England about the size of Stewart Island. It has a few nice beaches and lots of yachts and some nice wee villages and stuff. The festival held there is a reincarnation of the original festivals that were held back in the early 70's which included many acts such as Jimi Hendrix. They steadily got more and more popular until the third year when some 600,000 people crammed onto the island and gatecrashed the event leading to utter chaos and the eventual permanent closure of the festival. It was revived a few years ago and this years festival boasted names such as Muse, Snow Patrol, Amy Winehouse and the infamous Rolling Stones.

The weather was tipped to be nice and sunny after a week of forecasts that swung between stormy rain and hot sunny days. Our trip over on the ferry was pretty good considering the other 50,000 people expected to be making their way across this year. We travelled with a group of 5 in the one car and turned up a little after 8pm on the Friday night. The concert had started for the day but we couldn't get away from work any earlier so that was it. After standing in the long entry queue and going through the bag search, we entered a city of tents like no other. There were tents for as far as the eye could see, paddock after paddock full of happy campers. Our initial concern was finding a spot to pitch so we quickly set about finding some sweet flat grass. Not long into our search and following a tip off from some crewmen having an afternoon siesta where their boss couldn't find them, we found a patch to call home for the next 2 days. Pitching our tents quickly, we headed for the stage to check the place out.

The main stage was a good 20 minute walk away through 5 camping paddocks, 2 amusement paddocks, 2 food and beer paddocks, a clothing stall paddock and some bar paddocks. Although we were disappointed to have missed Groove Armada, we quickly settled into the atmosphere and hung out to see Snow Patrol. The evening was nice and balmy with a great crowd atmosphere and more than enough things to see and do. We were happy to get ourselves some cold drinks and settle down to people watch for the night as there were definitely some people who were living it up in the costume department. Far too many guys wearing dresses which was funny at first but then became a little disturbing - especially the small number who looked like their outfits were for real. Its one thing to go all out and wear a flaming 'look at me' dress, but quite another to be wearing blokey jeans, blokey shoes, a blokey pair of shades and a boob tube. Hmmmm. So it wasn't long until we were treated to some Snow Patrol and we had a great time singing along to the couple of songs that we knew. Bec's and I retired back to the campsite before the end of their set to beat the crowds and because we were still feeling shattered from the long week back at work and the constant late nights.

Our sweet dozing was soon broken by our neighbours as they came back at 2am a little inebriated and wondering where the heck all the additional tents had come from. Their idea of the way in and out of their spot had changed somewhat and along with the darkness and few beers that they had under their belts, our tents became stumbling obstacles. We were not too impressed as they were quite enjoying their own entertainment rolling over tents oblivious to anyone sleeping within 5 miles of them. Anyway, we soon settled back down to sleep without having to have any confrontations and all was rosey in the morning as they were all fast asleep.

Saturday turned out to be a cracker so we hopped into the car and took a tour around the island checking out the local villages and eventually settling down at Sandown Beach for a swim and some Frisbee. Although it was a nice hot day, the water was not as welcoming as we thought and many parts of our bodies retreated indoors while we braved a few dives and some enthusiastic swimming to stop from ceasing up.

Back at camp we headed once more off to the stage but stopped on the way at the Carling beer amnesty tent where we could swap any can of unopened warm beer for an ice cold carling. This was great as we had a few cheap warm beers that were well worth swapping. As we continued our walk we heard Amy Winehouse off in the distance and picked up the pace a bit in order to catch her. It was not to be however as we reached a fairly long queue at one of the search points and had to finish our beers before we went through. Then, just as we came through, 9 red jets came hurtling past within an inch of our heads as part of an air display. These guys were called the red arrows and they were freakin amazing. They drew all sorts of colours and lines in the sky including a mega huge love heart, they did synchronised loops and flips and flew in all sorts of shapes and forms playing chicken with one another etc. We were fixed to the spot and ran out of room on our camera trying to capture some of the action. By the time they had done, we were too late for Amy's set and just made it in time for the start of Wolfmother. These guys are an Aussie band that sound like a cross between Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin - awesome sound. The highlight of Saturday was Muse. Their live show was eye popping with some full on fat sounding music and a stage show that equally met the musical intensity of their sound. We were stoked and had a great night out.

The problem with staying for the last band until the last song and being near to the front of the crowd however was the bottleneck it created when trying to leave for camp. We found ourselves going from normal walking speed down to a shuffle as we were herded through the exit gates. Then it happened, one of those funny moments where a crowd of strangers entertain themselves when faced with an uncomfortable situation, kind of like the guy who cracks a joke in a lift full of strangers. Someone in the middle of the crowd started mooing and it really summed up how we felt being herded through the gate. It was not long before 2 or 3 hundred people were mooing and the uncomfortable situation turned quickly into one of hilarity. We made it back to our camp and hung out for a bit before retiring to the sack for some sleep. Luckily, tonight our neighbours were a little more accustomed to the tent layout in their neighbourhood - that and I think they had a few evil stares thew previous morning so they were on better behaviour.

Sunday was the finale for the concert but instead of hanging around the festival, we decided to head back to the beach for some Frisbee and swimming. Besides, the weather was great again and by this stage it was making the festival toilets smell pretty funky. Our day at the beach was spoiled by some heavy sea fog which was very strange so we went back to sit out the afternoon waiting for the Stones to come on stage. This idea proved to be popular with everyone and a massive crowd turned up to get their spot for the days entertainment. A lot of people were entertaining themselves with beer cup obstacle courses and linear Mexican waves (don't know how a Mexican wave works without a circular crowd). There was one part of the crowd where a guy had photocopied a large wad of money and dropped it on the ground for a social experiment. A large crowd surrounding the money were aware it was sitting there and whenever someone walked past they would see it, look around and pick it up. Just as they picked it up, the whole crowd would cheer, they would suddenly drop the money and run off. It was amazing how long this went on for.

The sun slowly went down over our last day on the island and it was not long into the night before the Rolling Stones came on to some massive explosions and light displays. We didn't really go to the Isle of Wight to see these old dudes as we weren't really huge fans. But, we did know some of their songs (who doesn't?) and thought they couldn't really live too much longer, could they? It would be nice to see them before they kick the bucket. We were taken by surprise. The Rolling Stones were by far the most energetic, crowd pleasing, entertaining act at the festival. Mick Jagger ruled the stage and had the audience in his hands. He was great. He bought out a couple of other performers from previous acts to sing with him and they just looked like scared children. With songs like Start Me Up, Satisfaction and Brown Sugar we were soon dancing along with a crowd ranging from young goths to old pensioners. Now that's a wide range of fans. The grand finally came up with a huge fireworks display. We took this as our opportunity to make for the exit and get to the ferry.

We were thankful enough to be on an earlier ferry to the one we had booked but luckily not everyone had turned up for the earlier one which would have been entirely due to the fact that the road from the campsite to the ferry was standstill traffic. We had sneakily parked our car by the exit and managed to be in the first 50 out of there. Even with all this careful planning though, it was a long night travelling and we didn't end up home til 4am. Both Bec's and I had to work in just a few hours so Monday was a very slow day for us. But we got through and didn't regret one minute of it.